<Daily Mail Alert> Autism linked to high achieving parents

[MincePieFlavouredVoidka]

Here

Nowt wrong with autism. Something wrong with a system that insists that high achieving women are stuck at home in poverty though.

Is this a genetic or an enviramental study I wonder?

Have you read the comments below the article. Jeez theres some nasty fuckwits out there

Read the article, sounds about right, have also heard that there is a link between couples who grew up in very different areas of the country having kids. This possibly would explain why there is lower rate in Armish communities.

As for the comments under the article

eaglewings thats a very interesting point about a link between two parents growing up in different parts of the country having kids.

ex and I are both degree educated, he is very intelligent (me not so) but he grew up on a rough council estate in North Wales and I grew up in a middleclass family in a leafy part of sussex. ds has suspected HFA

Completely different upbringing.

But then my uncle was most probably HFA, very eccentric clever man and very much a loner.

Is it nature, nurture or both?

I was told recently that Simon Baron-Cohen thinks autism might be an evolutionary response to the way we have to live now.

sheepgomeep - DH and I had exactly the same type of upbringing and came from the same town. We went to different unis. DS has AS.

I think you can make up rules to say anything you want!

I can understand the SBC point about an evolutionary response though. I think sensory perceptions are key to many of the issues.

We took part in this study - dh & I are both graduates (engineering & science).

He is incredibly sociable but utterly clueless - the king of the faux pas. I'm cripplingly shy but very good at reading people. We're both bright not diagnosable, my interests are artistic, his machines/computers. We're both very practical. I am obsessively organised, have a photographic memory, synesthesia and unsentimental. I hate clutter and would never collect anything, I don't enjoy games (chess etc) - seems like a waste of time, did well at maths but certainly don't love numbers! dh is very emotional, disorganised & has no ability to time manage or multi-task. He has an amazing memory for pointless trivia & maths facts. We have four children - one language delay but now nt very sociable & bright, one ASD & severe language delay, the third scarily precocious with very advanced language starting to read at 2 etc, number four is too young to tell but very similar to ds with ASD.

I come from a middle class academic family (with several males who appear to have ASD type traits), dh from a working class family - first to university etc. It is interesting but I still fall on the it's genetic side of the discussion.

Daily Mail comments there are a lot of very ... ignorant people around.

yes appropriatelytrained I think people try to find a reason or an answer to things when really no one knows. Sort of clutching at straws.

No one really knows what causes ADHD either yet its frequently put down to bad parenting

There are plenty of working class families who have autistic children. Where do they feature in this study.

The sensory issues and todays way of life may be why autism is lower in Amish communities perhaps? High Functioning/aspergers children maybe cope better in those types of societies.

Hope that makes sense. Not good at writing what I mean!

SBC doesn't pay much attention to the non-high functioning part of the spectrum. Or the fact that autism is more than one condition.

It is very difficult to even take part in research at the Cambridge autism research centre if your child is not high functioning, as you can't complete all the pre-questionnaires that you need to complete to register to take part in studies. This will skew their research somewhat.

"High Functioning/aspergers children maybe cope better in those types of societies."

I've often thought this & the community set up (large families living together, limited schooling, regimental daily routines etc) would make it easier to support people at all points on the spectrum so less need for diagnosis? (dunno ... maybe I'm being over romantic about the lifestyle?)

Agree with jimjams that SBC's research is ridiculously biased towards a particular type of 'high functioning' autist/AS. My ds is described as HF but I rarely recognize him in SBC's statements/theories.

I really must stop reading bloody daily mail articles!

I cant help myself from reading the comments and despite being aware of the ignorance that is out there, it still riles me each time I see it.

The singularly most annoying thing about having a child with autism is having to hear other peoples theories judgements on why he has it.

Re the actual article;

I dont think there is much in that theory TBH other than autism is genetic and those 'high flying' parents of autistic children are quite possibly on the spectrum themselves, I think it mentioned in the article that there are high numbers of adults on the spectrum in engineering etc so that part makes sense.

Im certainly not a high flyer, neither is XDP [although he is a maths whizz and quite structured]

I am quite likely on the spectrum, my father definitely although not diagnosed as hes nearly 70 and left school at 14, when my son was being assessed and diagnosed my dad and I had lots of talks about it all and he read up on autism online, he said it explained lots of things in his life and made 'sense' to him.

Slightly off topic a bit but I'm always interested how adhd is put down to bad parenting. One of dd paediatricians sons has adhd, his dad is a paed and his mum is a barrister! From very wealthy family well known family double barrelled name etc etc gone to good school. So surely it can't be down to bad parents! I think some people are just nobbers that blame everything on bad parenting!

I think to be fair to SBC (and I'm not a particular fan) that when you are a researcher, you have to pick one area to be expert in. This is true in every discipline.

The spectrum is so wide, and I actually think very misunderstood, that it is inevitable that making broad extrapolations from specific research is difficult.

It is a contribution to knowledge. No more, no less. But much more needs to be done.

Meanwhile, the same old crap gets taught as if it is scientifically proven fact rather than hypothesis e.g. 'these children lack empathy etc etc'. And the NAS is as guilty of this as anyone.

Do we actually know that autism is less often seen in the Amish? From what I know of them(admittedly not a lot) I wouldn't have thought they would be seeking diagnoses or taking part in research.

Maybe autism is natures evolution to perfection? strong academic gene pool - preferably from different areas to widen the gene pool. Whereas the Amish have a limited variety in gene pool?
I wonder what would happen in society when those on the spectrum make up a sizeable proportion? Education and health systems would have to adapt to the change.

Well there's no autism in our family. Lots of immune related disorders and ds1 regressed after a virus. DS1 won't be contributing to the gene pool either as he will never have a sexual relationship.

But as I said SBC doesn't really talk about kids like ds1 (and I do wish he would make that clearer - pretty much every other researcher does - he still talks about 'autism' when he is in fact only talking about extreme HFA/AS)

I will be taking part - the more people who take part the more accurate the results will be. I saw one or two of the comments and quickly scrolled up

I do agree with the article tbh, makes for very interesting reading and understanding of some of the causes of Autism. My dd pard said that there could be a genetic link, dh though not dx with Autism does display strong autistic traits, and yes he is a computer programmer and systemic thinker. He is not particularly social and when we have guests sometimes shuts himself in the study. His dad (a Doctor) is the same. So yes I do agree somewhat with the article, and disagree with people when the say it's laying blame on the parents when it not! Simply trying to understand Autism a bit better.

Haven't read the article but would love to claim the dh & I are hight achievers just because ds2 has autism, do you think it works that way around

Well DH and I met at work.
However it was in a call centre and neither of us are high flyers.